Mos Def/Eminem/Immortal Technique: Tell the Truth Tuesday, July 29, 2008

I had no idea this video existed. Mos Def, Eminem and Immortal Technique asking the government to tell the truth about 9/11. Eminem quite explicitly calls out the president.

The people in the projects are the victims of a system built on a self-perpetuating system of corruption-begetting-corruption. The honest man has just one choice: to tell the truth about what he sees. Lyrics here.

Gorbachev: The Music Video Thursday, July 17, 2008

The inimitable Amber Night recently posted this crazy-awesome video from a Russian band featuring Mikhail Gorbachev as an axe-wielding barbarian that shoots lasers out of his eyes.

This is a must-see.

I am a Dethklok Fanboi Monday, May 19, 2008

Disturbed audio, Dethklok video. Awesome. I'm such a fanboy.

Dethklok and the True Meaning of Metal Thursday, May 15, 2008

Honestly, I think Dethklok has taught me the true meaning of Metal.

And as a life-long metal-head, that is saying something.

And if you don't know who Dethklok is, then you should find out. If you have ever rocked out to Metallica, then you owe it to yourself to find out about the band who is also the twelfth-largest economy in the world.

I have always been a fan of the driving riff. That's what it's all about. Straight-up: it's the riff that is the heart and soul of every rock song. And when you're pissed off about it, it becomes the centerpiece of your Metal wannabe-symphony. The masturbatory guitar solos. The I-can-drum-faster-than-an-amphetamine-popping-beaver drumming, the ridiculously high, ridiculously growling or ridiculously operatic vocals. Everything about Metal is going over the top.

But they mean it. They want to be the angriest, the fastest – in short – the most brutal. The most Metal. So it takes on a sinister-if-surreal seriousness.

Metalocalypse is over the top, but Dethklok is not. They're Metal. They mean it. And the guys who played on the Dethalbum get it. They bring it. Case in point: "Thunderhorse".

Is it over the top? In a way. But it's also remarkably spare. There are four total words in that song: Ride, Revenge, Thunder and Horse. And it rocks.

Case the second, read the lyrics to "Murmaider":

There are no fingerprints
Deep under water
Nothing to tie one to a crime
And if you seek vengeance
All you need are instruments of pain

You need your

Knives? Check.
Rope? Check.
Dagger? Check.
Chains? Check.
Locks? Check.
Laser Beams? Check.
Acid? Check.
Body Bag? Check.

Murmaider x 16

But beware
For when you quench your blood thirst
Others will seek their vengeance on you
And they won't rest
Until you're dead

They'll have their:

Shiv? Check.
Pipe? Check.
Hammer? Check.
Axe? Check.
Subject? Check.
Location? Check.
Desire? Check.
Vengeance? Check.

Hold your breath, swim and strain
The smell of death, can't escape
Blood will cloud and drift away
Attract the murders of Murmaids
It's so cold they all know

What you've done, you can't run
Vengeance is the law for thee
A thousand leagues below the sea
You've been tracked, you've been seen
Murdering the next of kin
Ate their hearts drank their blood

Washed your fins in blackened mud
Now you swim try to hide
Heart beats faster from inside
Thought it was a big charade
Your life was ended by Murmaids.

Murmaider x16

Swords? Check.
Saws? Check.
Clubs? Check.
Claws? Check.
Hatred? Check.
Anger? Check.
Mermaid? Check.
Murder? Check.

MURDER! MURDER! MURMAID MURDER!

Your life was ended by mermaids.

Now Listen to it. That, my friends, is Metal. Somehow the fact that acid and laser beams would never work underwater doesn't diminish its intensity. Maybe it's funny, but whoever put these songs together has an understanding that comes from a deep love for Metal.

Watch Metalocalypse. If you love Metal, then you, too will understand me when I say that I want my pain waiver.

Metal n' More Meth Minute: A Sunday Rant Sunday, November 18, 2007

Dan Meth explores an important question: is Rush heavy metal.

Okay, Rush isn't Dethklok, but... let's see... "Working Man"? "Finding my Way"? "Witch Hunt"? "Stick It Out"? "2112"?! Okay, let me break it down.

Rush was in the 70's was old-school metal, like Led Zepplin, like Black Sabbath. I think I remember reading that Geddy and Alex played Clapton covers at coffee shops in Canada. Rush, like many great bands that produce more than a score of albums, wrote a lot of different kinds of music. Rush became Rush by transcending those other influences and becoming the defining band of the progressive rock movement. Rush became the musical force that it is when it transcended those influences and produced albums like Moving Pictures, Permanent Waves, and Counterparts. And all of those albums have songs that are definitely metal.

And yet take a poll of old-school Metallica fans, and you will find a strong corresponding love for Rush. Their early body of work has a more viscerally rock sound, something we'd more often associate with a metal sound.

Name the qualities of metal?

Funny enough, due to my personal agony over a band I call Disappointica, I've thought a lot about what "metal" is. I think it goes like this:

• 70's: Sabbath. Metal.
• 80's: Metallica. Metal.
• 90's: Pantera. Metal.

It is my firm belief that Geddy Lee wanted to be Robert Plant when they first started. Listen to Rush's first album. Rush has strong and complex riffs early on, but of course that mellowed some when their sound reached its electronic peak sometime around Power Windows. It is this technical emphasis that made Rush develop alongside bands like Genesis, Kansas and Yes in the progressive movement later on.

Metal is three things: distortion, aggression, and virtuosity. The distorted sound of the electric guitar is arguably what created "rock", and I think that "metal" is ultimately just an exaggeration of that. Metal music sounds "heavy" because it is distorted and low. Metal means aggressive music. And virtuosity has long been its defining characteristic that separates it from its similar-looking-but-entirely-different cousin, punk.

So: is Rush metal?

To come back to my original statement, yes, of course Rush was metal, in the 70's. Like Zepplin, Sabbath and Cream, Rush had heavy distortion and played with great virtuosity. They were not particularly aggressive, more imaginative, but the fiercely independent lyrical voice of Neil Peart creates several angry moments in their corpus.

Rush's first few albums are decidedly 70's metal, and they continued to produce "metal" music throughout their career, even if their overall focus was elsewhere in progressive rock.

After all, look at Rush's most immediate successors: Queensrÿche and Dream Theater. That umlaut in Queensrÿche metal enough for you?

A Saturday Rant Saturday, February 10, 2007

I just listened to the greatest song ever on Pandora. It's the greatest song ever because it has the greatest title ever. It's called Knights With Mystical Powers Battling Evil Demons (In The Presence Of Kings, Queens, Wizards & Dragons). The song is sooooooooooo sweet that I want to crap my pants. I can't believe it sometimes, but I feel it inside my heart. This song is totally awesome and that's a fact. It's fast, smooth, cool, strong, powerful, and sweet. I love this song with all of my body (including my pee pee).

But because I heard it on Pandora, I can't specifically go back and hear it again. Oh well. I also just discovered the joys of heavy metal cello in the form of Apocalyptica. They cover Disappointica, but I can forgive them. It rocks, people. It – um – r0x0rz my s0x0rz — or something.

And just who is Disappointica? I'm glad you asked.

<rant>

I realize that my very strong opinions on this matter are probably not widely known, but I want to get it out there. Metallica was poised to be a band that transcended its genre. I firmly believe that with ... And Justice for All, Metallica achieved a sound so uniquely their own, so powerful in its beautiful dissonance that it ceased being heavy metal. It's Metallica.

Yes, their lyrics and subject matter could sound puerile because it lacked subtlety, but more often than not, Metallica was able to produce something that sounded like a hungering beast, a fiery and sometimes virtuosic expression of anger.

The black album was the transition. Let me explain why. It was two different albums: songs like "Through the Never" and "Of Wolf and Man" are great songs and sound, to me, more like songs that the Metallica who wrote Justice would have written. But "Don't Tread on Me" makes me annoyed every time I hear it. Sandman is undecided, but that's not the point. Once you get past the Black Album, what do you have? That's right. The aptly-named Load. They're now trying to sound like other bands, when everyone used to want to sound like them. They gave up on doing what made them great: telling everyone else (like the cheese factory that is mainstream music) to f*ck off.

So I dub thee Disappointica.

</rant>